Intuition: It’s not just for “Psychics”

When most people think of intuition, they immediately associate it with the realm of the ‘psychic’. This isn’t an unfair connection to make – those of us that work in the psychic arts do lean heavily on this sense. I believe that one of the reasons that ‘intuition’ is so unrelatable as a term is that it isn’t particularly well defined to most people. For me though, it does have a pretty distinct meaning.

I define intuition as an inner knowing. The technical term for this is claircognizance – or the ‘extrasensory extension of thought or knowledge’. Still too unapproachable as a definition? Try thinking about it this way.

The mind perceives the world as a series of patterns. The logical brain takes in, extrapolates,and analyzes data which it then is able to recognize patterns allowing you to interact with the world in a predictable way. Intuition is the faculty of the mind that allows you to perceive patterns before you have enough ‘logical data’ to recognize them as following any set pattern.

You’re doing this all the time already. Think of when you go see a mystery movie and you instantly know who is the culprit as soon as they make an appearance on screen. What about when your friend introduces you to their new beau, and you instantly find the timeline for the ending of the relationship flash through your mind, and then it plays out as you expected it? What about when you send someone a supportive message because you felt like they may need a boost? All of these are ways that your intuition can sneak into your everyday perception. So why don’t we trust these impressions to guide us?

Blocks to Accessing your Intuition

There are many hurdles to trusting your inner knowing. The big reason for this is that many times these ‘nudges’ don’t speak as loudly as the logical mind. Also, they don’t have much data to back them up, so the logic train can run over these precious little insights. These are the biggest three ways that logic bullies your intuition.

Doubt

Doubt should totally be a four letter word (I mean, who needs a silent ‘b’ anyways?) Doubt creeps in when the logical mind decides to be passive aggressive and poke at what you just “know” to be true, even though you aren’t sure why you know it.

Negative Mindset

Nothing squelches the intuition like when you get fixated on a bad pattern. Think about it – when you have a bad day, how does it start off? When do you decide that it’s going to be a bad day? Then once you have this “realization”, how often can you pull yourself out of this nosedive? Once you start down this path, your logical mind has already recognized the pattern of it being a ‘bad day’. But this isn’t good enough for the logical mind – it has to REALLY drive the point home, so you just continue to see more and more ‘bad’ pile up in front of you.

Fear

The root of doubt and negative mindsets is almost always fear (which IS a four letter word). If doubt is the logical mind being passive aggressive, and negative thinking is your sense of logic being a being a know-it-all-showoff, then fear is when your sense of logic has decided to be a bully. Now, there are a lot of different shades of fear, and not all of them should be discarded. For example, I’m fairly clausterphobic. I hate small spaces! I get nervous, panicky, and yes – downright afraid. I am pretty sure that when I get into an elevator that the walls aren’t going to cave in on me, but I try to honor that fear and take the stairs when it’s feasible to do so.

The kind of fear that I’m talking about is the one that is just as gripping but tries to be polite, almost like a backhanded compliment. These are the fears that crop up and stand in the way of your happiness because you’ve allowed yourself to believe that something ‘doesn’t make sense’, or that you need a resource to achieve it that you just don’t have access to. These are the kinds of fear that you want to face head on, dig your heels in and convince yourself that your happiness is worth the risk!

The key to overcoming these hurdles is TRUST. Many of us find it harder to trust in ourselves than to trust in a divine intelligence orchestrating the Universe. Give yourself permission to be wrong. Encourage yourself to explore. Trust in yourself enough to try. So what if you fail – the real threat to your logical mind is if you succeed! In order to learn to trust in yourself – specifically your intuition – try beefing it up and testing it’s limits in by exploring it in your day to day world.

Here are a few ways that you can engage your intuition in your everyday life.

Psychic Navigation

Engage your intuition to help you find the most effective route to your next destination. Let me be clear – I’m not saying close your and trust your inner psychic to do the driving. Nor am I suggesting that you decide to get to somewhere you’ve never been without looking up the directions. I’m suggesting trust that intuitive nudge that tells you to take an alternate route to work today, maybe to avoid excessive traffic or an accident.

“Seems Right”

Play the ‘it seems right’ game. When your leaving a restaurant or the mall, try to figure out what kind of car the person walking in front of you drives. Allow yourself to make up “fictitious” backgrounds to people you see based on your intuitive impression of just seeing them. (Even if you’re never able to confirm the information, this allows your mind to expand into that ‘gray area’ of creativity, which is actually a safe space for the intuition to flourish because the logical mind tolerates creativity.) Try matching coffee mugs to your coworkers. While this may seem like a game, the more you can do this and learn to trust your intuition, the more it will be allowed to just randomly pop up throughout your day.

Psychic Dieting

Most of us know what’s good for our bodies on a general level. We all know living off of pizza is not the road to longevity and health. However, sometimes we just have an urge to shift what we’re eating. Sometimes it’s a craving, like you really want a cheeseburger. Other times you just have a notion that you’d feel so much better if you only ate raw fruits and vegetables until dinner. Pay attention to what you’re sensing. This is also a pretty tricky area to navigate though. Do you actually sense that the gallon of cookie dough ice cream is a good idea, or are you just having a sugar craving? Many people are truly surprised of the happiness and healthiness that they feel once they ditch any crazy diet rules that they’ve been following because someone else told them that “this is how you do it.”

Judgement versus Intuition

Sometimes you meet someone and you just don’t like them. I used to have an open door policy in my life, where I gave anyone and everyone a chance because I see the good in people. Now, I’ve learned (the hard way) to follow my gut impression of a person or situation. Become mindful of what your intuition is telling you when you first meet someone. See if you can identify the reason why you feel a particular way about them – is it how they’re dressed, the tone of their voice, etc. Follow the flow in your mind to how this has proven true before. Could you find an example? If so, then you may be dealing with a judgment. If you find that it ‘just seems like something so and so would do/like/say’…… then you may actually be dealing with a veiled intuitive impression. Something (an indistinct something) reminds you of someone else. See if you can extend that into how that person reminds you of someone else. When that happens, test your theory against what gave you the initial impression. Here is a good example of how intuition can sneak an impression in on you. Joey’s shoes seem like something my ex Roger would wear. What about Joey is bringing Roger to mind?…Roger did cheat on me, a lot actually. But those shoes don’t seem like shoes a cheater would wear. What else could it be……Well, Roger was hugely into his dog Spot, like ridiculously into him, like his whole world revolved around that dog. I bet Joey is a huge dog person. Those do seem like shoes a dog lover would wear…..

Flowing With and Engaging Synchronicity

I like to engage synchronicity to receive messages and guidance. My personal favorite way to do this is something I call the Combination Lock method. First, I come up with a set of three or four numbers ranging from 1 to 20 (usually between 1 and 12 though). For example, I may choose 6, 11 and 3. Then I’ll go onto Youtube and pick my first video from the starting page. I count down to the 6th recommended video, click on that one, then repeat with the 11th video, then the 3rd. I will then watch this video for any messages or ‘cosmic hints’ that may pop up. On occasion, this will lead me to a really long video, at which point I add the the numbers to my ‘combination’ (in this case, 20) and I’ll forward to the 20th minute of the video and look out for messages. When I try it this time, I end up on a video that’s a song about not feeling good enough for someone, which is something I’ve struggled with in the past. When I repeat the process with the same combination from the mobile app on my phone, I end up on an Abraham Hicks video about how you create together with your beloved. (See a theme going here.) So what I take from this is that my day today is about acknowledging my self worth so that I can engage in the process of creating the life that my honey bunny and I desire.

A big part of finding your personal ‘lucky streak’ is being willing to go with the flow of synchronicity. The Universe is constantly conspiring to put you in the right place at the right time, but for this to be effective you have to pay attention to the nudges that come from that still small quiet space within where the intuition resides. Engage your intuition and set your intention to fall into your flow, then see how far it can take you!

Riding the flow of synchronicity is far more than just having a ‘lucky streak’ though. When you are in alignment with your soul’s purpose and drive, you experience a sense of contentment mixed with a bit of joy and excitement that underpins your awareness. You experience a sense of wonder and emotional ease. (This is not to say that everything you experience is necessarily ‘easy’, but moreso a that you don’t fight the feeling.)

These are just a few examples of how you can use your sense of intuition or claricognizance to help you in your everyday. Once you’re able to harness this sense, then you can more readily tap into the wellspring of energy that creates the flow through your life, and ideally you can learn to ride the tide instead of fighting the current.